As for you, go and proclaim everywhere the Kingdom of God

New web site

2009-10-12T18:08:00.005-06:00

Rachael and I are now married and have a new web site for the both of us!

I will still be using this one to give updates while still in the U.S. but once we go out on the field it will be hard to update because they have people monitoring the phones and the internet... =)

www.wix.com/RAADAMS/rechabiteministries

the site is now under construction, but in the weeks ahead we will update and give all of our information on that site!

We are also in the process of being ordained as Rechabite ministries, which should be finished in a couple of weeks!

2009-07-31T18:22:00.002-06:00

Recently theOverseas Ministries Study Center reported the countries that receive the largest number of foreign missionaries. Guess who was #1? The United States. That's right, there are now more missionaries to the United States than to any other country in the world.

Unreached and unevangelized: 95% of the people living in the 10/40 Window are unevangelized. Many have never heard the Gospel message even once. There are either no Christians or not enough of a Christian movement in many cultures of the 10/40 Window to carry out vibrant near-neighbor evangelism. If those groups are to be evangelized, believers will need to leave their own culture to enter another where they will seek to plant the gospel. Such cross-cultural evangelism is required because there are people groups with no church movements that are understandable or relevant to them.

865 million unreached Muslims or Islamic followers in 3330 cultural sub-groupings
550 million unreached Hindus in 1660 cultural sub-groups
150 million unreached Chinese in 830 groups
275 million unreached Buddhists in 900 groups
2550 unreached tribal groups (which are mainly animistic) with a total population of 140 million
Forming a smaller -- though important -- unreached group are the 17 million Jews scattered across 134 countries
Good news: Missions researcher David Barrett says the country with the most rapid Christian expansion ever is China where there are 10,000 new Christian converts every day.

One Question for you all out there>>>>>>> How was your potluck at church this month?

Minor Update!

2008-08-30T08:49:00.002-06:00

I've been in a season where I have felt like my connection with the Lord has become second place to ministry. I am not sure what exactly happened or how it came to be that way but I came to a place where the Lord wouldn't let me continue on as if nothing was wrong. Towards the end of my last trip in South Africa it was as if the Lord lifted His blessing off of ministry and I was forced to leave Africa and return to the states.
When I returned it was still very difficult to reconnect with the Lord. Which was when He introduced me to a strange new method of revelation named Rachael! Rachael and I met in Mozambique at Iris Ministries in 2006 but something happened when we started talking this time, my heart went absolutely crazy! I couldn't wait to talk to her, I couldn't stop thinking about her! I became a lovesick mess in almost no time at all!
I was reading psalm 139 a while ago and Jesus really started talking to me through it via my relationship with Rachael! I finally started to understand His heart for me! I don't know have many times I have read through that particular chapter but this time I started to understand!

17 How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God! How vast in number they are!

18 If I try to count them, there would be more of them than there are grains of sand.

I started to interpret through a different lens..... I know my thoughts toward Rachael, how often I think of her, how my heart feels when I think of her and all these kinds of thoughts. Then feeling the Lord smile knowing that I was finally understanding how he feels towards me, towards all of us!
Knowing the pleasure the Lord feels about me and how it truly has nothing to do with whether or not I am going crazy trying to reach the lost or get the sick healed or the demonized delivered.
All of these things I thought that I understood but it was more of a head knowledge and not real knowing! The real Christian life is just loving Jesus and letting Him love us! Perfect love casting out all fear and anxiety about life and ministry and just being able to abandon ourselves in absolute trust to Him! Out of that place flows all anointing, ministry and life. What are we not willing to do for those that we love? Those we love we want to please because if it matters to them then it matters to us! And how free does that make us in Him, knowing that the things on my heart are on His as well! And how amazing to have God who loves us with a love that is so immense that we will likely never in all eternity be able to fully grasp!

2008-06-12T22:47:00.003-06:00

OK, sorry I went Missing in Action there for a while. I made it back to Montana ( and I am never really sure what I think about that lol ). I am stoked about a couple of things though, cheesecake from Olive Garden and my new bible, the God's Word Translation.
I came back to the states under protest and not being really sure why I had to return. But since I have been back I have been making a lot of connections to people from the past. People who have had major parts in my spiritual life. So I have been thinking a lot about connections and the need for strong relationships in our lives. Not only ministry connection and church backing but people who we invite into our lives, people that we give ourselves to and also take from their lives into our own.
After all when Jesus talked about taking up our cross and following Him what did he mean? His cross meant laying down his life for others. Think about it, any effective ministry is much more than just going out and sharing a message from the bible. It is inviting people into a family. A family that has God as the head and the rest of us as sons and daughters. It is inviting them out of alienation and isolation and asking them to come close and see that our Father is indeed GOOD!
When you think about perhaps the only true thing in this life that we have to offer is ourselves. Its the only thing that we truly own, so its the only thing that we can truly offer to God and our greatest gift to others.
I am not sure what this next season is going to look like but I know it will be good. I know it will be a time of filling in some gaps that have been both in my life and in my ministry. I know it will be a good season!

2008-03-29T03:14:00.002-06:00

For the first time last night at our Friday night service I was able to preach without an interpreter! It was amazing, I could actually get in the flow of the Spirit a bit! I was having one of those days...you know the ones! =)

I just couldn't get into preparing a sermon for the evening. As I was sitting there I started thinking about Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones. We have all heard so many sermons preached on that passage that its sick! But I felt that the Lord wanted me to preach on that passage based upon not giving up on the promises of God in our lives! I found as I was preaching on the very thing that I myself needed to hear. Still I am not sure if anyone else in the church received anything out of the message but it rocked me!

It was like I was speaking the words of God directly to myself. It was so good to hear the Lord say to me " don't give up on your dreams that I have given you, even when they seem so far off and nearly impossible! I am still devoted to bring them to pass! "

I was so encouraged to press in and to stay focused on Him and His faithfulness! In the end we can never rely on people we can never rely on ourselves, but the one who has called us is faithful!

Church March 21 Palm Ridge, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008-03-21T13:29:00.002-06:00

Church today was interesting. First off we had a young girl who was crying because of an injury to her left elbow. She was in so much pain that she just left the church because she was in tears. We took her aside and prayed for her, I think three times, and she only felt slightly better. We told her to wait a bit of time during service and if she didn't feel better we would pray for her after service. The next time I saw her she was picking up her younger brother with her "bad" arm and told us that she felt totally better! Yeah God!

Next just before a Pastor from Mozambique started preaching the first service, a woman screamed and started manifesting a demon. We took her outside and began to minister to her. The demon would start talking and laughing...trying to intimidate us...LOL it was quite funny!

As it turns out she was given over by her parents to be a witch doctor when she was a child. (It is amazing to me how many of the demonized people that I have met over the years, have been given over to be witch doctors. I am starting to feel like there is something specific that the Lord is trying to show me.)

So we ministered to her and saw her get a level of freedom but didn't feel like she was totally free. Although as I ministered at the second service she was able to sit and listen without manifesting at all. But I realize that sometimes God sets people free immediately and others it seems to be a bit of a process.
Php 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion...

After talking with some of the locals I am deciding that there needs to be some hard core teaching here about the effects of visiting the witch doctors as well as ancestor worship. So I will be looking into teaching or a discipleship class on the subjects.

So it was a better than average church service today. God is kicking butt and we get to join Him. How cool is that?

2008-03-20T02:51:00.002-06:00

The sun is shining today...finally and its warm. Over the last week we have had so much rain that there were literally rivers running down the streets, which makes it so much fun to try to walk and find a mini bus/taxi back into town from our church in Palm Ridge. We are still trying to finish the church building itself. We have metal on almost all of the roof and most of the walls. But one slight problem area is that the ridge of the roof where the two sides meet...has a big gaping hole. Incidentally this does let more than a little water into our services.

Other than that things at the church are moving forward, and I have a new found respect for all who are called to be pastors. =) One of the best things that we have going is a bible study for the youth. Teaching on the foundations, right now we are going over water baptism, they are eager to learn and full of questions. After the teaching we have a time where they can just shoot all the questions that they might have about life or God or...
The topic last week was dreams, not like " I have a dream...." but last night I dreamed.
Two of the people walked away being very encouraged with what God was speaking to them in the night. Both had been a little freaked out at first, but God had really given them some amazing things!

So we are pressing forward, not just to see the people get fed, but rather to see them learn how to feed themselves and others. There is some work ahead but one plants another waters but God gives the increase.

As You Go......

2008-03-10T00:39:00.002-06:00

So it has been a challenging time here, we have 4 meetings a week, with more in the planning process. And I, to quote William Branham, " am a spare tire of a preacher"! What is happening is that I am beginning to get a clearer view of what my ministry is meant to be. So even in the midst of stretching times if we can get a more focused view of our life it was well worth the cost. I am learning more and more how to minister as who I am without trying to meet the expectations of the people. I find that it doesn't make you the man of the year, but our anointing is connected to our personality. So if we are going to walk into the fulness of who we were created to be we have to willing to be origional.

Last Sunday we had an alter call for those who needed prayer, only a handful came up. Among those was a young man who was asking for prayer because he needed a job. We prayed over him and in two days he came back to report that he had just been hired for a new job. Normally that isn't real impressive but if you understand how many people here don't have and cannot get jobs, then you could really see the hand of the Lord.

So I was walking home the other night and I was stopped by a parking attendant. He of course asked me for money, and as I was about to say no, I looked and realized he was crying. So I called him aside and asked him what the problem was. He said that he had no one to help him, that his father had died and he was sleeping on the streets. I just began to share with him about the fact that God is his Father.When he heard that he started crying again and I could see that he understood. I also understood that it was his day to meet the Father, as the Holy Spirit was so deeply touching him. So right there on the street we welcomed another brother into the family. Isn't that cool. God is so involved in our lives. Every detail seems that it can either be random or divinely used by God, depending on whether or not we are paying attention to what God is doing.

Thanks for all the prayers and support.

2008-03-06T03:15:00.001-07:00

It was here in Johannesburg that my journey in missions began in September of 2004. Almost 4 years and 7 countries later I find myself back where it all began. Now in 2008 what has been proclaimed as the year of new beginnings, it feels like I am starting what I initially set out to do here in this country.

Upon arrival here in 04, I had no real training, no real plans, I just knew in my heart that I was called by the Lord to proclaim the Kingdom of God wherever I went and whatever I did. Now years later here I sit. I think back to all the people who have so selflessly poured themselves out to help equip me to follow the call of God that is on my life. Rare people, quality people that God has put into my life, people who truly understand the Kingdom and Christian spirituality. To all of you I give my sincere thanks!

There are so many names by which our God is called, Jehovah Jirah, Jehovah Rafa, but my favorite description of the Lord is Jehovah Sneaky! In my life He is constantly engineering circumstances to lure me into a place where I am in way over my head! Now is one of those times!

A friend from Iris Ministries has started a church here in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has had to leave the country for a time and has asked me and another friend from England to come and help run his church while he is away. Instant leadership in a church that I have never seen. Talk about jumping in with both feet. =) It is so much different than just coming to preach a few meetings and doing some evangelism. A huge responsibility!

I ask that you all would pray with me for wisdom and anointing, to lead in a way that will honor the Lord and that will empower the people to launch out into their own callings. That my words will be his words, and my actions would be his actions. I need to be able, like Jesus, to see what the Father is doing. Also that the Lord will bring at least one other person here to help with this work.

Thank you to everyone who is standing with me.

2008-02-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

It is a strange wonderful feeling being back in africa. I arrived last night and pulled up in front of the same dirty hotel that I always stay at, music blasting in the lobby, a room full of beer drinking locals ( my crowd of choice ). I sat down to relax after 2 days of travel minus time zones.I suddenly realized just how fruitful the time at home was. A time of rest ordered by the Lord a time to recover my heart as well as to find the Lord's. While I was home I felt as though I had wasted my time it felt fruitless, yet as I sat there with all the people, the dirty rooms, to bad service, I felt at peace....happy. I can only wait with christmas eve anticipation at what the Lord has in store for this season.

2007-12-21T06:15:00.000-07:00

I was thinking the other day, the most powerful force on the planet is a person filled with the presence of God and sold out to living their life for Him. Why then do we as Christians tend to always have the mindset of lack. Always the underdog. Always searching for more power, more anointing, always trying to attain what we already have. What then is the reason that we never seem to walk in what the bible tells us is already ours? I think it is because we don't really believe what He has told us, we don't believe Him because we don't know Him. Here are some interesting verses:

Jas 1:6 But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, being driven by wind and being tossed;
Jas 1:7 for do not let that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please God. For it is right that the one drawing near to God should believe that He is, and that He becomes a rewarder to the ones seeking Him out.

There is something in us that is always wanting to please God by what we do. We try to be good enough and then we think He will be pleased with us. What if we tried to please God not by what we are doing but by simply believing in who he is. It has been said that faith is the currency of heaven. How many kinds of faith are there? Saving faith, faith for healing? What if the faith we are supposed to have is simply faith in who He is. God is always good, God is all powerful, God is always with us! We all believe that on paper, but when it comes to walking it out our lives often show that we don't really believe these things. Christianity has become all about going to heaven ( which is a good thing ) but wasn't the purpose of the birth and death of Jesus to bring us back to the relationship that man had in the garden? A friendship with God where you actually have conversation? But we have developed a Christianity where we just try to use God. Use Him to get to heaven, use Him to get healed, use Him to get our finances in order on and on we go. That we would know Him that should be our initial and ongoing goal.

If we know Him then we will know His kindness to those who are suffering whether it be from sickness, sin, poverty or whatever else. Then we will not have to try to conger up faith. It will be there because we know the one who is faithful.

Jas 2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled, saying, "And Abraham believed God, and it was counted for righteousness to him;" and he was called, Friend of God.

Faith is a sign of friendship. You enjoy being with your friends, you trust your friends. God is the same way. I believe that there are some amazing things that God is wanting to do this year. But I also believe that there are things that He will not entrust to strangers. If we want to walk as Jesus walked then we will have to know Him!

Back in Montana

2007-10-28T22:18:00.000-06:00

Well its been a while since i updated here. At the end of my stay in Russia, I and other people that speak into my life, felt like the Lord was wanting me to go home to Montana to get a little R & R.

At the time I didn't fully understand why. Now I can see exactly what the Lord was doing and why.

There is a lot of talk in churches of foundations. If the foundation is strong then the building will be also. If the foundation is wrong, then you are wasting your time trying to build on it.

Since coming home I have come to see that my foundation has been built on what man says it should be, bible school, internships, mission trips, quiet time....,but the Lord has another agenda. Jesus died with one agenda, to restore man to God. We want formulas, He wants friends. He can trust friends with the Kingdom.

The foundation upon which all else is built is knowing Him. Not knowing about Him i.e. knowing the bible, or how to preach, or how to pray for the sick. When I came home I had to get brutally honest with myself and admit that I really don't know the Father. We are business partners and not friends. That is a horrible realization!!

So I have set apart some time to spend with God. All else aside! Just to seek to truly know Him. I know this will be the most amazing time and out of it will flow the fruitfulness that we all seek.

It is the most simple and basic step that must be first above all else. He cannot and will not allow us to bypass the very reason that Jesus went to the cross. He declares in His word that if we seek Him we will find Him. For He is the answer to every problem, the true fulfilment of every desire and the pinnacle of all true spirituality.

2007-09-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

( Photo:Islamic soldiers on street in chechnya! Try to blend in!! )

How unqualified I feel to even tell the stories of the people here. I have worked with Lesley with several other holy given schools before coming here to Armavir Russia. I have seen God transform many lives, including my own, during these schools. Yet I was completely unprepared for what we have found here in the lives of these amazing people here in southern Russia. I feel like the lives, struggles and triumphs of these people have been hidden from the eyes of their brothers in the west. Yet I know that they understand the cost of following Jesus more than we have yet come to understand. This school for all of us has become a journey of discovery. To discover what is truly valuable and to give it all away in order to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of us! The very thing that Jesus poured out his life for was his bride! How blessed we are to be able to share a portion of our lives with these amazing people!

One student from Kyrgyzstan left the school this week in order to go back home because the Lord told her to go and testify to her family. She is the only Christian in an all Muslim family and as of now they do not know that she is following Jesus! Tears flowed as we prayed for her protection. She has counted the cost and counts Jesus as being more precious than even her own life. Obeying the command of her Lord she risks all to tell her people about the gospel of Jesus!

The wars in Chechnya have left many scars on the people who call it home. One girl was 10 years old during the war. She has left a lasting mark on my heart. After surviving the war she was kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim man. She became pregnant and gave birth to a child whom she was raising for 4 years, but after the child was old enough for the father to raise she was thrown out and forbidden to see her child again! She came here and God began to do a deep work in her, though she wasn’t sure who she believed in the Christian or Muslim way to God. After a few days of being deeply touched by Jesus she began to draw near to Jesus. A few days later she had to return home where she was scheduled to have an arranged marriage to another Muslim man. A team went with her to Chechnya to take her home and to encourage other believers in the area. To their surprise the girls mother was sick and agreed to let them pray for her. Everyone said that she was very welcoming, but when the team left she began to beat her daughter and to force her onto the floor to pray in the “Muslim way “. But the following day she came again to the team and told them that even though she was forced to pray that she prayed to Jesus!!! What great faith and what a great testimony of strength during persecution!

Two other families are here from Chechnya. One pastor has a price on his head because of his work for the gospel! Both Families are planning on returning to that region at the conclusion of the school to bring the gospel to an area of grave danger, to risk it all to obey the call of Jesus on their lives!

Each day I listen to the fighter planes screaming across the sky's here, and returning to a base just down the road. I'm constantly reminded of the uncertainty of what tomorrow may bring, and what I might see in the papers the next morning. I'm even beginning to weep for my brothers that will return to a certain persecution that will more than likely see them martyred. It's a reality for them but it is not reality to me, because I will return to my comfortable sofa & star bucks coffee, and watch a DVD with a take-out. Will I forget that my friend Aslan will be head hunted every day because he is a traitor to Islam, and will I remember that we shed tears together as God gave him deliverance & healing. I hope that this part of the journey is never forgotten in my heart. Each and every life is precious in God's sight; we need to look through the same lens as Him. Until this happens and we begin to respond accordingly, this faith means nothing, and not just to us but it determines how the world sees God also. If I want God to live in me it means I have to respond to the love He lays on my heart, there is nothing more painful than a love that dies inside you. So I have to give away my life in order to live and even survive another day, the question is: What will I give my life away for? The picture is becoming clearer through the fog each day for me, how about you?

Give it all Away

2007-09-06T04:27:00.000-06:00

I am amazed day after day here in Armavir!! We heard some more testimonies today as God moved through the room healing the brokenhearted! It was like 10 years of therapy in one morning! All through the room you could hear crying and groaning at the intensity of the pain that was being brought to the surface so that it could be healed! One by one people got up off the floor with the amazing story of what they had been through, how it had wounded them and the amazing work God had just done. A young girl whose father had been murdered was completely undone. The tears flowed as God's love began to heal the memory of that day. Others had lost their entire families. Pain from the wars, pain from abuse, pain, pain, pain. The tragedies that some, actually most, of these people have lived through are difficult for me to even imagine!

But these people are being healed, trained and released to take the love of our God to those of their own culture! Of these some already know that they will be killed for their faith in Jesus! It is an honor to know these people and to be able to share even a small time with them. You will likely never hear their names. You will likely never read their books. Yet heaven knows their names! What if our only goal was to give it all away for Jesus? What does that really look like? Is it just a trendy altar call? Those that lose their lives for my sake shall find them!

A Different World!!

2007-08-29T11:32:00.000-06:00

This photo of Beslan...where the school hostage crisis took place! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis

I have been absolutely undone since I have arrived here in Armavir Russia. I thought that I was coming here to teach and to minister to the christians here in Russia, however I have come to realize that if there is anyone that will be a student....it will be me!

I have been working with holy given internation school of missions for a short while now, this will be my 4th school that I have helped to staff. I have never in all my life been around people of this caliber! They are the true heros of the faith! I want to take just a few minutes to tell you of a couple of the people that are here with us!

We have with us one girl in her early 20's from Chechnya. To be honest when she first came we all had some questions about her motives of being here, as it seemed she was here solely for the purpose of finding a western husband! Then something happened....we watched ' HotelRwanda ' ( several people couldn't finish the movie and almost 10 needed prayer after...of which she was one who needed prayer!) We began to pray for the people after the film and this young girl began to reveal her testimony little by little. It turns out that at the age of 10 she was right in the middle of the chechan war! A while after surviving the war her mother and brother began to beat her regualarly! Suddenly one day she was kidnapped from school and taken away to become a wife for a muslim man! She was forced to marry him and to have a child! Then was forced to observe muslim rituals! Once the child was age 4 she was thrown out and not allowed to see the child again! I believe she has been out of the situation less than 6 months when she arrived here. Now she is required to return home and her family has planned to have her married to yet another muslim man there in Chechnya. How oblivious I am to the struggles of the real world and how quick to make assumption about people. This girls' story has and still is breaking my heart as I wonder how I can ever forget her and her struggle to find Jesus in the midst of such a dark area of the world! God help her....God help us to not forget her!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chechen_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chechen_War

Two other families are here from Chechnya. One pastor has a price on his head because of his work for the gospel! Both Families are planning on returning to that region at the conclusion of the school to bring the gospel to an area of grave danger, to risk it all for those who reject the gospel and persecute the christians!

The final person that I would like to highlight is yet another girl but from Kazakhstan. She is helping with the school here but is heading home in less than 1 week. Her family doesn't know that she is converted to christianity and she knows that the Lord is calling her home to be a witness to them! This is no joke. She is in fact facing the possibility of beaten, being kicked out of her family, or killed! Yet she is going in spite of her fear! How was your sunday church service?

I am here to teach, yet I have nothing to say. I am silenced at every angle the boldness of Hero's of the christian faith, that have already overcome things that I cannot even imagine! I don't know why God brought me here, but I am learning lessons that I will never forget! Pray for us! Pray for the persecuted church! Pray for your brothers and sisters!

2007-08-20T04:17:00.000-06:00

All is FINALLY looking good for the Russian visa. We are set to go and pick up the visa later this afternoon and also to fly out tomorrow morning.
This has been without doubt the hardest country to get a visa from that I have ever encountered! First I tried to get a visa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. After two tries there we decided that the guy was just not going to give us a visa....so off to Nairobi, Kenya we went! A 15 hour bus ride and 4 days of trying we were also unable to get a visa at that embassy. At this point we were all thinking...is this some huge warfare or is this God closing the door? We all felt in our hearts that we were supposed to be in Russia so at the last minute we found what seemed at the time to be cheap tickets to London with a continuing flight to Moscow. Soon to find out that they were only one way tickets! So Finally in London we got off the plane and went straight to the Russian embassy here only to find that we had to go to the Internet cafe to download an application! Rushing to get the application fill it out, change the money we needed to pay for the visa and running back....and they were closed! 4 minutes late! So then we had to stay the weekend and wait to try again Monday....when finally we made it and its looking like we will have the visa!!
This has been the highest cliff that I have ever had to jump off in order to follow what I felt like the Lord has called me to do! So we are all showing up in Russia dead broke, exhausted and completely ready to go! We have been hearing reports of Military action all around where we are going to be! A bomb has exploded on one of the train lines. One of the students in the school actually has a price on his head just for being a christian!! We will arrive in Armavir on Wednesday and then on Friday we go to do an outreach in Chechnya where this pastor lives!
The potential for this school is amazing! Almost entirely Russians who are not going anywhere after the school , but are coming there with the sole purpose of changing their nation!
I can't wait to see what Jesus is going to do there!!!!!!!! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

' but as for you go everywhere and proclaim the Kingdom of God '
Ok....

We are not giving up!

2007-08-11T07:05:00.000-06:00

Next! Well after two separate attempts to get a visa to go into Russia, I and my two other traveling companions, Josh Duffy and Jessica Orr, have decided to try another embassy in Nairobi Kenya. It is our cheapest option a mere 50 dollars away! So We are leaving tomorrow morning! We are trusting that we will have divine favor when we get there! Many prayers are needed and appreciated! We have three points of prayer that we are asking for....1. of course that we get the visa soon and without complications! 2. That we can all find cheap plane tickets on such short notice. 3. Finances, it is becoming more costly to get there and we are not all sure that we are going to have enough money.
We have been getting reports from our friends that are already there are a lot of things happening both in the spirit and in the natural. My latest email from friend in Russia said this...."THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON IN THE HEAVENLIES HERE, THE RUSSIAN MILITARY IS 10MIN FROM HERE: THEY ARE BOMBING THE SOUTHERN REGION (Georgia) AND FLYING INTO BRITISH AIR SPACE...." and " We are seeing lives transformed here bro, try 2 get here B4 next weekend, we are heading into Chechnya where they are hungry 4 Jesus & there is resistance against Christians!" ...Needless to say we could all use your prayers!
This is truly an opportunity of a lifetime! We have the chance to make an ETERNAL difference in the lives of people who might otherwise have a chance to hear hear the gospel!
Please pray for us! Blessings back to you! You can check these web sites as well:
http://www.holygiven.org/HG-Schools.html
www.livingwatersrussia.org
http://missionaryjosh.blogspot.com/

2007-07-30T02:13:00.000-06:00

We can cure physical diesases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love Author: Mother Teresa

I am in Tanzania waiting to get my visa to go to Russia. It makes me laugh when all kinds of issues happen at every turn. Nothing worth doing is ever easy! Actually I would worry if it was easy! So while I wait I am spending time with the Lord trying to get some fresh revelation of His heart and taking time to hear his voice in the circumstances of every day life.
I have had plenty of time to walk around the city and take in the culture. One thing that is really hitting me here is the darkness upon the people. I see crippled, blind, deaf, the crazy and the multitudes of people living their lives in darkness. A couple of days ago I was walking past a mosque and I noticed this man ( above ) sitting on the sidewalk. Actually he was hard to miss! He sat there beating his head which was covered in an enormous ball of string that had been there so long that his hair had actually dread locked in it! The man was in such torment as I had never seen! ( so I did the unthinkable and went back and took a photo, only for the reason of putting the face of a real person in front of your eyes. I pray that we all have eyes to see! ) And I pray that it makes us all very uncomfortable, but also that it may stir the hearts of those who are called to go and do as Jesus does.

I walked by multitudes of people and looked into their eyes and saw the same hopeless look and eyes filled only with darkness and gloom. Everywhere I went I saw people crippled from polio, people with no fingers, gangrene in legs. I was absolutely overwhelmed by what I was seeing! The worst part was that this is one part of one city in one country! There are so many more places, so many more people that are in desperate need of GOOD NEWS! We have the good news people need! Joy, peace, love who is it among those who follow Jesus that can't give these things away to those who have none? We need an army of people who are willing to lay down their lives for the ones that can never repay! An army of people that are so in love with Jesus that they cannot walk by but will once again take the power of God to the streets of the world! And no longer be content to abide only in the four walls of the church!

I pray that God will indeed stir hearts to follow hard after what He is calling us to do. I am not trying to enlist everyone into overseas missions, but only to encourage people to do that thing which God has made to burn in your heart! For people to dream God sized dreams, perhaps even before the American dream. Can you hear him calling?

2007-07-02T03:12:00.000-06:00

It is another beautiful day here in Pemba, Mozambique! I have been praying and asking God for some help and direction concerning my involvement in Iris Sudan. Recently Iris has stepped back from their involvement in northern Sudan. I have been asking God...did I miss the boat on making this last trip to Sudan? This is what I felt the Lord say.... Luke 9:60... as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the Kingdom of God. So I feel very free to just walk through the open doors that the Lord puts in front of me. If I go to China people will get touched by Jesus and if I go to Sudan the Lord will do the same there. So I have recently been invited to help Lesley Anne http://www.holygiven.org/HG-Schools.html with a Holy Given School in Armavir, Russia! It is a amazing opportunity to put feet on the gospel and run to those who are hungry and needy both spiritually and physically. So I will be hading out sometime in the next few weeks. Hopefully after Russia I will have some clear direction from Iris' leadership concerning what is to happen in Sudan.

I find myself struggling a bit with the goodness of God! Seriously somewhere in my sub-conscious it seems that I should not be able to truly follow my heart when it comes to my life with God. I have always been a bit of a traveler at heart and now the Lord is encouraging me in the very thing that brings me great joy. Could it be that serving God is waaaay better than we ever thought it could be??? =)Somewhere in my inside I think I should feel guilty, yet I hear and sense the pleasure of God in the matter saying yeah follow your heart because if you do you will be living out of the spiritual dna that I gave you and then you will truly tap into the anointing that I ordained you to walk in!! Right now I am living my DREAM..... I am having a blast following God on adventure after adventure. I wouldn't trade my life or my Jesus for ANYTHING!!!

where is Paul?

2007-06-23T08:42:00.000-06:00

Back in Mozambique. For the time being. I came to Moz. to the iris ministries staff retreat. During the meeting with Heidi and Rolland Baker all the previous plans for northern sudan were set aside. As of right now we are trying to establish a new plan for what we want to do there. It looks like it might be a couple of months before any new plans are set in stone. So in the meantime we are in the process of putting a team together! Which is awesome...so far we have four guys that are seriously interested in going into northern sudan.

As of right now I have been helping with the holy given school. But I have been asked to consider helping another Iris base in central Mozambique. They have a huge feeding program where they literally feed thousands! They will be understaffed as the missionaries that are there now have to leave the country for visa issues. So that would be an awesome way to spend some time waiting for the Lord to re-open the door in northern sudan.
More to come. Thanks to everyone who is standing with me in this time. Be blessed.

Get the T-shirts made up!

2007-05-09T05:50:00.000-06:00

So we had a sand storm the other day and although I didn't have time to get the camera out...it looked just like this coming in! It took about 1 minute and then it blocked out the sun and covered us all in a blanket of dust! At the time ( when I couldn't really breathe ) I didn't really enjoy it but now that its a memory, its kind of a cool story.

The work here continues yet it seems like not much is getting accomplished. The good news is that we will soon have more bodies to help with the work! I believe that Supressa is coming somewhere toward the end of the month! He is an amazing guy and is sure to bring some refreshment with him. Also we are having one long term missionary from Iris come as soon as his visa comes through and like 8 other short term visitors. It will be great to have some company! The bible says woe to him who falls and has no one there to help him up! Let this be a lesson to us all. Always take a partner with you. LOL We don't need any more people getting supplied with woe. =)

Well my plan is to renew my tourist visa one more time and at the end of may to leave ( as is required ) and to go to Maputo, Mozambique for the Iris staff retreat. Then I believe that I will likely go to Pemba, Mozambique to await for the student visa to come through. All of the staff there in Pemba have been a great help and have given me much needed support.

I thank all of you for all the prayers and support that you have given and ask that you don't stop now. =)

May God pour it back on you with much increase!!

2007-04-26T08:51:00.000-06:00

Well ...what is the latest? It is hard to choose a topic here it seems like everyday there is something blowing up! lol We right now are in desperate need of a trustworthy builder to help us get a dorm for the boys up before the rains start. It seems like everything here is more difficult than usual even for Africa! =) We have a million construction projects that need to get done asap. I need the wisdom of God here! Big time!! Things have to get done but we also have to be good steward of the money that God has given us through our supporters!
We really need a visa to come through for Marie! She has started the base here and knows the language and the ways here much better than I! In my administration gift mix I rate a -10 so all this is putting me on the edge of crazy!
For me personally I have been having a much better time with Jesus! He is showing me how to deal with the Sudanese here. I learned the hard way that you can't talk to them like you would someone from the U.S. So it has been a good learning time for me as well as stretching. Thanks to all for the prayers they are working....don't stop now!
Jim is also in need of prayer. He is the one that is coming here to help me with all the work. Please pray for his provision as well as for his visa to come through and that he can get everything worked out soon so that his work here in Sudan can start as quickly as possible.
Also pray for me and my visa situation! It is a million step process and I need a lot of favor to get it through quickly.
Thank you all for your faithfulness to pray for us here, I pray that God richly rewards you all according to your needs as well!
Paul

2007-04-21T09:02:00.000-06:00

Some much needed encouragement came yesterday! Iris approved a friend of mine that I met in Mozambique to be a missionary with Iris here in Khartoum, Sudan! Its been a hard road being here without anyone that is on your side! ( other than Jesus!) So Jim is in the process of tying up all the loose ends. I am praying to have him here in less than a month!

I have not been able to do as much outreach as I would like but the last two days I have been able to go over to our church in another part of town. The first day I preached and prayed for the sick. We had one lady come with a lot of pain and stuggling to breathe. We laid hands on her and prayed and asked her how she was, she told us the pain was gone and she could breathe well but she said her body was trembling! I told her not to worry, that when God came down on a mountain to speak with Moses the whole mountain shook. She smiled and walked away filled with the goodness of our God. Another older woman came she was having all kinds of problems. We prayed for her 2 times before she felt better. She came the following evening just to tell us that she was totally healed of all that had been wrong!
The next night we showed a film. Not the Jesus film cuz I hate it...=) I have seen it more than once! Afterward I got up and very simply shared the gospel. To my surprise the men who usually show up to watch the film and rush out before you can speak ...they were glued to their chairs. I asked for those who wanted to Jesus and every hand in the place went up. Which was only a small crowd, but Jesus had hand selected them. The thing that gets me about conversions here is that it is not done lightly. At a very minumum you will get kicked out of your family. So these people mean buisness when they give their lives to Jesus! Then we prayed for the sick again. One man was healed of stomach pain started saying I'm hot I'm hot! I just laughed and quoted Bill Johnson to him....lol hot is good!

So thanks for all the prayers and please keep them coming. Every time you pray you are a partner with me here in sharing the gospel.

2007-04-15T11:10:00.000-06:00

Where to start? Life has been chaotic here! I am finding that there are not enough hours in the day to get done all I need to let alone the things that are in my heart for Sudan. I NEED A LOT OF PRAYER! =) First of all we need prayer for our churches! We kind of have 3. They are all in the baby stages and all lack any kind of leadership. --Pray with me that God will bring forward some people to be trained and to lead these churches.--Pray that God will wreck the children here at our base and in our churches ( they are the members we have!!) --We need a plan from heaven of what God is wanting to do here, because whats been done in the past hasn't worked. Some old school power, signs and wonders to follow the declaration of the gospel! --I am in desperate need of an interpreter the people that are helping now have limited english or aren't around during the hours I need. This is one of the most important prayer requests! It is hard to do anything when you can't talk! --Pray for desperately needed workers at least one more full time would be great 2 would be waaaay better!--Pray for me to get drunk in the Spirit and stay drunk! Its been hard to stay full here with so much to do. I am feeling a bit bankrupt so I need a fresh encounter! For REAL!
I had a fun encounter the other day with the Lord! I was lost...lol imagine that! I was on my way to language school and was late...it was the first day. Finally after driving around I said oh Jesus you gotta help me get there. A voice that sounded way too much like my own said ok. go two blocks down and take a right, resist the temptation to take the first right hand turn. As I looked it did look like a street that I would want to take...I kinda laughed thinking for sure that this was just me and not God at all. I followed the instructions and as i took the turn i thought that everything looked familiar. The voice again said yeah it should look familiar take your next right as well, as I took the turn there was my language school. I had to laugh at the great directions, but also at my own inability to distinguish the voice of the Lord from my own!
Life at the base is very interesting. I live with 11-15 boys depending on the week. I have often proclaimed that I am not a kid person! So its quite funny living with a bunch of fighting little men! I am starting to see a lot of them soften up. They were quite standoffish for the first little while that I was there, but now it seems they are learning their boundaries and that I have I am there for them. There has been huge changes in their behavior. This morning I preached a bit on forgiveness and that they should live differently than that of the rest of the world. It was great to see them today after the sermon they would start fighting and then it was like you could see them remember the teaching and they would stop. I loved it. A small thing its true, but it was a great encouragement for me to see them.
Day by day many people from around Khartoum are returning to their native areas in the south of Sudan. The war between northern and southern Sudan had pushed many people out of their homes to take refuge around Khartoum. With the war over the government of the south is redistributing the lands to each family. So it seems that one by one we are losing are kids as they return to their homes in southern Sudan. I hope the impact that we have made on them here is enough for them to continue their life with Jesus!
Please don't forget to pray for us here that Jesus will have his way among all the people here. That I will follow his plan and not try things any other way. Thanks for all the prayer and support. Oh and still no student visa...but I am getting closer. Fire! Mara!!

1st Outreach

2007-04-03T06:15:00.000-06:00

I have taken over a children's center since Marie, the founder, has been kicked out of the country and has not yet been able to get the officials to give her a new one. Its a big undertaking ( and every day I have more respect for her!!) but the Lord is giving me grace. Right now we have about 28 kids some are orphans some are not. I am here as a part of Iris ministries from Mozambique. We officially have 3 churches but they are small and struggling right now. I did my first outreach the other night about an hour and a half outside of Khartoum. We showed the Jesus film and I preached afterwards. About 50 people raised their hands to receive Jesus. It was an unusually small crowd compared to what I have experienced in other parts of Africa. Afterwards we prayed for the sick and Jesus showed up and did His work, healing all kinds of head pain, abdominal pain, and one man who was complaining of pain in his heart told us that it was better but not all pain was gone. So we have humble beginnings here, but it is a start. God will do it. Its His work anyhow.

I have also just been enrolled in Arabic school here! I sound more like I have something stuck in my throat than someone speaking Arabic, but it will come. Right now I really need prayer for my visa. I need a student visa in order to stay here for a year. Right now my visa expires on the 15Th of April. =) Thanks for all the support!

More Fire!

Sudan Update

2007-03-24T07:11:00.001-06:00

I arrived safe and sound here in Sudan! The day after I arrived 3 other people came to help us build a dorm for the 25 boys that we have living here with us. Up till now they have been sleeping outside or under a crude tent made out of tarps and old flour sacks! When all is done they will be living in a 2 story brick house! The base right now is a flurry of construction projects...a drainage system, a security wall, a baby house, and another guest house all in addition to the dorm! There has been much practical work to be done including buying food etc.

But now starting next Wednesday we have 5 days in a row of outreaches 4 around the city and 1 about an hour south of Khartoum. I am excited to see the power of God hit Sudan! We will be preaching at our churches but they are surrounded by the massive Muslim population! Its gonna be awesome you are gonna be jealous!! =)

As for the city, it is a unique mixture between black African and Arab populations and I have to say that so far I love it here. Although it seems that they built Khartoum right on the face of the sun!! Its a little warm! LOL

All in all everything is going well. Keep us in prayer for our outreaches that Holy Spirit would blow this place up with His power and that many people will come into the Kingdom! Also pray that we can get all the permits that we need without too much problems! Pray for all of our safety although it seems to be very safe here....so far..lol Also Please pray that Marie who has started this base will be given her visa as her presence here would make many things smoother and all of her boys miss her greatly! Pray that Jesus will get the glory He deserves!!
Fire on all of you!
Paul

Sudan Update

2007-03-24T07:11:00.000-06:00

2007-03-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

Finally! I have my visa for Sudan!! I will be leaving to Khartoum on the 6Th of March. It seems like my whole life has led up to this point. Heading off into what is for me...the unknown. I really don't know what to expect. How hostile will the people be to an American christian? How extreme is the poverty going to be? Will they be hungry or resistant to the gospel? If I was a betting man and I am, I would bet on the love and power of God breaking through in ways that up till now I have only imagined!

I have felt the Lord challenging me concerning this year. " Live your life this year as if every word and every promise in the bible is true! Don't worry but instead launch out and hold nothing back and then watch and see what I will do!"

I realized that although I claimed to believe the entire word of God, I didn't live like I believed it! I realized that there has always been that part of me that I have held back in fear that God wouldn't show up in I laid it all out there!

A man I met in Mexico once told me go out and boldly proclaim Jesus, lay hands on the sick and if God doesn't show up...then go home! But he said, God will never fail to arrive at the place where faith meets with action!

So I consider, what's the worst that can happen? I realized that the worst that can happen is that I not push all my chips to the middle of the table ( to use the old poker analogy ). The worst that can happen is to now show the world who Jesus really is!! The Jesus we have presented to the world is not the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present God of the bible. There is a world of desperate people out there who need Jesus! Jesus! Not religion!

How many people are out there who have never seen Jesus as He really is? How many people do we meet every day that need his power? How many have you walked by today? What if we are held accountable for the people that God puts before us? What will you say? What will I say?

The question remains to me and to you! What will you do with what you have been given? " to him who much is given, much is required "! Will you continue on with life as usual or will we decide that today is a day to walk out in faith and begin to meet the needs of the people that we see? Will you continue in mundane powerless religion or will you go out in faith an a new determination to show the world the real JESUS? Will you go all the way?

I'm all in!

Missions Statistics

2007-01-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

Facts about evangelical status worldwide:
approx. 2 billion people are considered an unreached people group

only 2-3% of protestant missionaries are reaching this group

95% of all unreached people live in the 10/40 window

66,000 people die every day from this group

out of every gospel dollar only 4 cents goes to missions

of the 4% that goes to the mission field, 80% of it goes to already established works

27% of the planet has 2-3% of the missionary work force helping them get saved

97% of missionaries work in already evangelized fields

last year more money went towards ecclesiastical crime than went to missions

America spends more money on dogfood than on missions

10,000 chinese come to the Lord every day

every 7 weeks 1 million Latin Americans come to Christ

most expensive country to send a missionary to-Japan

least expensive-Mozambique

Some Good Quotes

2007-01-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

Every man dies. Not every man really lives. - William Wallace

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems. John W. Gardner

A man has only two things: dreams and courage. Gutzon Borglum

What I do today is important because I am paying a day of my life for it. What I accomplish must be worthwhile because the price is high. David Crippen, MD, FCCM

Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps. David Lloyd George

He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea. Thomas Fuller

He who doesn't risk never gets to drink champagne. Russian saying

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T.S. Eliot

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Mark Twain

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived." M. Scott Peck

Eighty percent of success is showing up.~ Woody Allen

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.~ Bill Cosby

2007-01-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

hungry women wait for food handout

2007-01-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

2007-01-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

What you have done to the least of these... You have done to me!!

SUDAN

2006-12-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

Ready to go? I have no idea! I am only partly sure of what I am to expect when I get there! Here is what I know:

- there are approximately 1.8 million refugees living in and around Khartoum Sudan. (see above)
- about 500,000 are expected to return to their homes in the south by march.
- the country is expected to split into two countries, a muslim north and a " christian" south.
- the harvest is RIPE!!
- the laborers are few!!

So to sum it all up...the 1.8 million refugees that are now living in Khartoum are planning to return home in the very near future. Many of these refugees are christian and thus make the evangelism much safer!
The country is expected to split into two seperate countries. The muslim north would then become a closed country ( closed to the gospel ). According to the workers there now, any church that is established before the country splits will be allowed to remain. This makes NOW the right time to go!
According to the leaders of Iris ministries Sudan is one of the most volatile nations in the world yet also some of the most ripe for the gospel!
Sudan is unreached and Jesus wants His bride! I can't wait to go!

Holy Given Missions School Pemba, Mozambique

2006-12-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have just returned home from Mozambique...just in time for Christmas! My time in Mozambique was amazing! In total almost 300 students that came for either the summer or the fall Holy Given School! It was amazing to be a part of the revival that is happening there in Mozambique, but also in seeing revival happen in the hearts of the students that had come from all over the globe! Students were filled with missions theology during the week in class yet all the while living very near to the poorest of the poor! On thursday nights and on weekends we sent out teams into villages both far and near to show the Jesus film, preach the good news, and to heal the sick! Thousands came into the Kingdom of God through their efforts! I believe that both those from Mozambique and those from the missions school were equally changed! God did an amazing work in all of us! I am thankful to be a small part of what God has done there!